Economic model for the evaluation of 3D food printing

The food sector is one of the most relevant at global level and nowadays it faces new challenges coming from the emerging trends of personalized nutrition, food customization and by the growing number of people with food allergies and intolerances. Additive Food Manufacturing (AFM), a new technology having a considerable growth of interest in the last years by researchers and food experts, seems to be a promising solution to address those issues. Nowadays the academic studies on 3D food printing, another popular name of AFM, are still under development and they are focalized on technological and technical elements of the production process. The studies leave outside in most cases practical implications that the adoption of the technology will have from an economic, social or sustainability perspective. This paper has the objective of develop an economic model to evaluate the introduction of the additive manufacturing technology in the food market. More in detail the model describes possible changes due to the adoption of 3D food printing in relation to small food business, like restaurants and confectionery. The study is focalized on the economic aspect, analyzing also effect and changes that the new technology will have along the supply chain.